…For at Cedar Lodge, we’ve been playing our own form of Countdown this Christmas.
Determined that Covid wouldn’t hamper our fun, word games have been a great way for us to enjoy each other’s company over the festive season.
A favourite of ours has been coining anagrams from well-known Christmas sayings.
As we spend the winter locked in, it’s been a great activity that we can all enjoy safely. And what’s more, we dare say we’re pretty good at it…
Some of our residents’ word-crunching coups include…
Creating 8 words from the noun ‘Reindeer’.
15 from the phrase ‘Yuletide’.
And a whopping 36 words from surely the most famous name of the season: ‘Father Christmas’
Admittedly, we didn’t have the same degree of luck with the word Santa Claus. But we didn’t let that dampen our spirits!
We eventually decided to put our poor performance down to how the term ‘Santa Claus’ isn’t really English to begin with.
In fact, it derives from the Dutch word for Saint Nick – Sinter Klaas and therefore hides few anagrams in the English language. (We’re not sure whether that’s true….but it certainly made us feel better!)
Indeed, so invested have our residents become in these regular word games, that they now head straight to the dictionary if they hear a word they don’t recognise.
And it goes without saying that the games have been a great way to keep our brains ticking over.
Anagrams target the areas of our mind which deal with problem solving; as well as the bits that process reasoning, memory and vocabulary.
By training these parts of the brains, we can all bolster our brain health. Better protecting us from the memory problems often experienced in older age.
For us, the camaraderie that the games provide is reason enough to get stuck in. And we’re looking forward to entering 2021 sharper than ever.
So, watch out Carol, you might see us on Countdown soon!
Recent Comments